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Participatory research can be promoted by scientific intermediary units, such as Science Shops. The overarching goal of these initiatives is thereby to foster a process of co-creation of the research questions to address societal needs that are relevant to scientific research and society at large. The InSPIRES project was a Horizon Europe initiative from 2017 to 2021 with the primary objective of expanding the implementation of Science Shops across Europe and internationally. Within the framework of this project, a harmonized, self-reflection and impact assessment methodology has been developed to evaluate five dimensions of participatory research: knowledge democracy, citizen-led research, participatory dynamics, integrity, and transformative change. In this article, we report the results of 58 projects implemented in Africa, Asia and Europe. We present the results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis with a view towards encouraging the debate on the challenges involved in designing a standardized evaluation tool to capture the multiplicity of processes involved in participatory research. Results showed that the participatory research processes increase access to knowledge and promote the forging of alliances and relations of trust through respectful dialogue from multiple standpoints. The analysis also retraces some critical points with regard to the democratization of knowledge and the scope for social transformation, which would require further scrutiny. All in all, the proposed InSPIRES assessment tool proved to be a straightforward approach to systematically evaluate key dimensions of participatory research across different phases and project roles that could serve as a starting point for future similar initiatives.

Research projects involving science shops and citizen science in their promotion of participatory approaches are flourishing globally. However, an instrument evaluating the impacts of such approaches at different stages of a participatory research processes has yet to be validated. The InSPIRES H2020 project developed an impact evaluation tool for just this purpose, consisting of 64 items that reflect upon the dimensions of "knowledge democracy," "citizen-led research," "participatory dynamics," "transformative change," and "integrity." In this article, we seek to test the content validity of this tool and to provide recommendations that can ensure its validity. A panel of nine experts was created to evaluate each item as regards the following three criteria: representativeness, relevance, and clarity. The Aiken's V and Wilson Score methods were used to assess the tool's content validity based on the experts' ratings. Experts' written comments were also reviewed. At the panel level, 75% of the items were considered satisfactory in relation to each of the three validity criteria. However, at the population level, 72% of the items suggested that parts of the tool were not valid and required revision. The main suggestions from the experts pointed to the need to reformulate items in which the separation between science and society appeared reinforced and to develop more items about the gender perspective of a research project. The revised version of the tool should serve as a well-founded, comprehensive evaluation instrument for on-going and future projects whose goal is to self-reflect and compare participatory research processes.

We aimed to assess the impact of complex mitral valve disease and patient risk profile on operative outcomes in the large cohort of the Mini-Mitral International Registry. Patients were assigned to categories of complex degenerative mitral valve regurgitation (DMR; bileaflet or anterior mitral leaflet prolapse/flail) and simple DMR (posterior mitral leaflet prolapse/flail). Subgroup analyses was performed in low-risk (EuroSCORE II <8%) and high-risk (EuroSCORE II >8%) cohorts. A logistic regression model was applied to investigate the impact of valve anatomy and patient risk factors on valve repair rate and operative risk. The study cohort consisted of 4524 patients with DMR (complex DMR, 1296; simple DMR, 3228). Valve repair rate was 87.3% and 91% in complex DMR and simple DMR, respectively. Predictors of valve replacement were anterior leaflet prolapse/flail, bileaflet flail, female sex, age, and reoperation, whereas Barlow disease was protective. Clinical results were comparable between complex DMR and simple DMR. On subgroup analyses, high-risk patients showed less satisfactory outcomes with respect to both the valve repair and operative mortality rates. Our findings suggest that complex DMR can be satisfactorily addressed by minimally invasive techniques. However, whereas complex disease was associated with low operative risk, anterior leaflet lesions and bileaflet flail remain negative predictors of successful valve repair. Conversely, valve repair rate was less satisfactory in high-risk patients, regardless of DMR complexity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutualistic symbiosis and eusociality have developed through gradual evolutionary processes at different times in specific lineages. Like some species of termites and ants, ambrosia beetles have independently evolved a mutualistic nutritional symbiosis with fungi, which has been associated with the evolution of complex social behaviors in some members of this group. We sequenced the transcriptomes of two ambrosia complexes (Euwallacea sp. near fornicatus⁻Fusarium euwallaceae and Xyleborus glabratus⁻Raffaelea lauricola) to find evolutionary signatures associated with mutualism and behavior evolution. We identified signatures of positive selection in genes related to nutrient homeostasis; regulation of gene expression; development and function of the nervous system, which may be involved in diet specialization; behavioral changes; and social evolution in this lineage. Finally, we found convergent changes in evolutionary rates of proteins across lineages with phylogenetically independent origins of sociality and mutualism, suggesting a constrained evolution of conserved genes in social species, and an evolutionary rate acceleration related to changes in selective pressures in mutualistic lineages.

Action research is an important methodology that promotes participatory processes in the community, enhancing community networks and empowering people to define their own health and generate actions. Here, we performed a systematic review using the Scopus, Web of Science (WoS) and SciELO databases to identify the studies carried out on health in Latin America under the category 'Action Research'. The search terms used were 'Action Research', 'Health' and 'Latin America'. We identified the following three areas of particular relevance: (a) action research is a necessary strategy to make health actions more efficient by adapting institutional actions to specific realities; (b) action research can increase the visibility of excluded groups and demonstrates the importance of being heard; and (c) action research can promote community empowerment by considering community members as knowledge agents who can transform their own reality. We report that action research processes which highlight the emancipatory and democratizing potential of community participation are subject to controversy regarding the production of and access to knowledge and the issues related to health. However, action research is not usually used in the development and implementation of institutional health interventions.

We assume that the construction of encounters that produce care is a participative practice in health. Drawing on different research that has explored care production from a micropolitical approach, we present a view of participation as embedded in everyday life and based on the construction of encounters and relationships. Our goal is to provide reflections for debate on participatory practice within different frames of action. Based on the analysis of different cartographic narratives generated by research on a reproductive health policy, we discuss some core elements for the construction of encounters that produce care. On the same lines as models of professional development based on professionals' day-to-day experiences, we propose experimentation during the encounters and discussion about what happens in them, as both a reflective practices and forms of collective and participative knowledge production.

Physics students at Worcester State University visit the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) at the end of a special 100- level course called Physics in Art. The students have studied geometrical optics, and they have been introduced to concepts in atomic physics. The purpose of the museum tour is to show how physics-based techniques can be used in a nontraditional lab setting. Other examples of the use of museum-based art in physics instruction include analyses of Pointillism and image resolution, and of reflections in soap bubbles in 17- and 18th-century paintings.

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To retrospectively evaluate a protamine conservation approach to heparin reversal implemented during times of critical shortages. This approach was aimed at maintaining access to cardiac surgical services. In-patient hospital setting. Eight hundred-one cardiac surgical patients>18 years old. Patients undergoing cardiac surgery who received >30,000 U of heparin were given a single fixed vial protamine dose of 250 mg or a standard 1 mg of protamine to 100 U of heparin ratio-based dose to reverse heparin. The primary endpoint was differences in post-reversal activated clotting times between the 2 groups. The secondary endpoint was differences in the number of protamine vials used between the 2 reversal strategies. The first activated clotting times values measured after initial protamine administration were not different between the Low Dose and Conventional Dose groups (122.3 s v 120.6 s, 1.47 s, 99% CI –1.47 to 4.94, p = 0.16). The total amount of protamine administered in the Low Dose group was less than that in the Conventional Dose group (–100.5 mg, 99% CI –110.0 to –91.0, p < 0.0001), as were the number of 250 mg vials used per case (–0.69, 99% CI –0.75 to –0.63, p < 0.0001). The mean initial protamine doses between groups were 250 mg and 352 mg, p < 0.0001. The mean protamine vials used were 1.33 v 2.02, p < 0.0001. When the calculations were based on 50 mg vials, the number of vials used per case in the Low Dose group was even less (–2.16, 99% CI –2.36 to –1.97, p < 0.0001).) Conservation measures regarding critical medications and supplies during times of shortages can maintain access to important services within a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) use and complications (euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis [eDKA] rate, mortality, infection, hospital, and cardiovascular intensive care unit [CVICU] length of stay [LOS]) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. A retrospective study. At an academic university hospital. Adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery. SGLT2i use versus no SGLT2i use. The authors evaluated patients undergoing cardiac surgery within 24 hours of hospital admission (between February 2, 2019 to May 26, 2022) for SGLT2i prevalence and eDKA frequency. The outcomes were compared using Wilcoxon rank sum and chi-square testing as appropriate. The cohort included 1,654 patients undergoing cardiac surgery, of whom 53 (3.2%) were prescribed an SGLT2i before surgery; 8 (15.1%) of 53 had eDKA. The authors found no differences between patients with and without SGLT2i use in hospital LOS (median [IQR]: 4.5 [3.5-6.3] v 4.4 [3.4-5.6] days, p = 0.46) or CVICU LOS (median [IQR]: 1.2 [1.0-2.2] v 1.1 [1.0-1.9] days, p = 0.22), 30-day mortality (1.9% v 0.7%, p = 0.31), or sternal infections (0.0% v 0.3%, p = 0.69). Among patients prescribed an SGLT2i, those with and without eDKA had similar hospital LOS (5.1 [4.0-5.8] v 4.4 [3.4-6.3], p = 0.76); however, CVICU LOS was longer in patients with eDKA (2.2 [1.5-2.9] v 1.2 [0.9-2.0], p = 0.042). Mortality (0.0% v 2.2%, p = 0.67) and wound infections (0.0% v 0.0%, p > 0.99) were similarly rare. Postoperative eDKA occurred in 15% of patients on an SGLT2i prior to cardiac surgery, and was associated with longer CVICU LOS. Future studies into SGLT2i management perioperatively are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat conversion to agricultural land is one of the main threats to terrestrial biodiversity and can affect ecosystem processes and cause changes in ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDs). Yet, studies often rely only on the abundance and diversity of the service providers; the effects on ecological processes of habitat conversion are rarely directly monitored. In this study, we used the sentinel approach to evaluate how habitat conversion from native forest to agricultural land affected ESs and EDs on an oceanic island. We quantified herbivory on lettuce plants, invertebrate and vertebrate predation rates on artificial caterpillars, pollination on strawberry plants, seed predation on wheat and mustard seeds, and leaf decomposition rates in native forests, maize fields and pastures on Terceira Island, Azores (Portugal). Herbivory, invertebrate predation rates, and pollination service were not significantly different between habitats. Vertebrate predation rates in native forests (mean 6.1% d−1) were significantly higher than that in pastures (0.3% d−1), or high-elevation maize fields (0.5% d−1), and marginally higher than in low-elevation maize fields (2.2% d−1). Overall seed predation after 48 h was significantly higher on wheat (mean 16.8%) than mustard seeds (5.6%). High-elevation maize fields also had higher seed predation (27.8%) than low-elevation ones (0.6%) or pastures (3.6%), but did not differ from the native forest (12.9%). Decomposition after 90 days was highest in pastures (78.4% and 45.9%, for tea and rooibos, respectively); although no significant differences between habitats were detected, except for low-elevation maize fields (64.4% and 33.6%). Conversion from native forest to cultivated land did not cause a clear decrease in the intensity of the studied ESs/EDs except for vertebrate predation. Using direct monitoring tools to simultaneously and consistently quantify multiple ecological processes is not only possible but needed, as ecological processes can respond differently to landscape changes. [Display omitted] • Ecological processes were assessed after converting Azorean forests to agriculture. • All quantified ecosystem services/disservices showed idiosyncratic changes. • Predation rates significantly decreased when forest was converted to cropland. • Herbivory and pollination did not indicate significant changes. • Decomposition and seed predation increased in high elevation maize fields and pastures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) plays a role in coronary artery disease (CAD). EAT has regional distribution throughout the heart and each location may have a different genetic profile and function. Glucagon like peptide-1 receptor analogs (GLP-1RAs) reduce cardiovascular risk. However, the short-term effects of GLP-1RA on microRNA (miRNA) profile of each EAT location is unknown. Objective was to evaluate if EAT miRNAs were different between coronary (CORO-EAT), left atrial EAT (LA-EAT) and subcutaneous fat (SAT), and liraglutide can modulate EAT miRNAs expression. This was a 12-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 38 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) who were started on either liraglutide or placebo for a minimum of 4 up to 12 weeks prior to coronary artery by-pass grafting (CABG). Fat samples were collected during CABG. miR16, miR155 and miR181a were significantly higher in CORO-EAT and in LA-EAT than SAT (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05) in overall patients. miR16 and miR181-a were significantly higher in CORO-EAT than SAT (p < 0.01), and miR155 and miR181a were higher in LA-EAT than SAT (p < 0.05) in the liraglutide group. Liraglutide-treated patients had better intra-op glucose control than placebo (146 ± 21 vs 160 ± 21 mg/dl, p < 0.01). Our study shows that CORO- and LA-miRNAs profiles were significantly different than SAT miRNAs in overall patients and miRNAs were significantly higher in CORO-EAT and LA-EAT than SAT in the liraglutide group. Pre-op liraglutide was also associated with better intra operative glucose control than placebo independently of weight loss. • Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) plays a role in coronary artery disease (CAD). • EAT has regional distribution and each location has different genetic profile and function. • The short-term effects of GLP-1RA on microRNA (miRNA) profile of each EAT location is unknown. • Coronary (CORO-EAT) and left atrial EAT (LA-EAT) miRNAs were significantly different than subcutaneous fat (SAT). • miR16, miR155 and miR181-a were significantly higher in CORO-EAT and in LA-EAT than SAT in the liraglutide group. • Pre-op liraglutide treatment caused better intra operative glucose control than placebo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religião is the property of REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religiao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)